Vermont Architectural History Matthew Sutter Instructor: Jose Galarza December 6, 2011

20thC. Design/Build in the United States

By examining three houses created by Albert Frey, Lawrence Kocher and David Sellers we will explore a possible connection between the exploration of materials and thoughtful affordable housing. The three houses are the Aluminaire House by Albert Frey & Lawrence Kocher (1931), Frey I house by Frey (1940), and the Bridge House by Peter Sellers & Ed Owre(1966)

The goal in all three, it appears, was to create affordable housing the masses could often times construct themselves. From the 1920’s mass produced houses were readily available. They could be ordered from Sears or often times your hardware store. Some came to your site in a kit ready to assemble others were the tract homes built after WWII. They were mainly based on traditional styles with little expressive options for the owner. In Europe the School was influencing architects to eschew these historic models and methods of design. The school ultimately influenced three architect Design/Builders during the last century.

Frey & Kocher Early Years

The Aluminaire House by Frey and Kocher was possibly the first Design/Build house in this country to use manufactured materials creatively in an attempt to achieve an affordable modern house. Albert Frey was a Swiss born Architect and devotee of the Bauhaus school of thought. He worked for LeCorbusier in Paris during the 1920’s. Soon after getting his U.S. Visa, Frey moved to in 1930 and teamed up with Albert Kocher. One of their first collaborations was for the Allied Arts and Building Products Exhibition in conjunction with the annual Architectural League

1 Exhibition. They were asked to design a project that would attract the general public.1 At the time Lawrence Kocher was the managing editor of Architectural Record, and also a fan of the European new schools of thought (Bauhaus, Destijl), was taking the publication away from the Beaux Arts traditions the current editors had followed. The Firm’s solution was to design a full-scale residence that maximized the space allowed in the hall.

The project was revolutionary for its time and setting. The concept was to create a house based mainly on materials donated by big industry such as Bethlehem Steel, ALCOA and Westinghouse. Using these materials in ways never done historically they could build both an affordable and socially conscious house in the new thought of future progress. The house was a success in these terms. In the historian Joseph Rosa’s words “it is a neoplastic object, a pure form devoid of vernacular reference and metaphor, designed independently of site…to demonstrate the possibilities of affordable housing achieved through modern technology.” The structure was designed to be assembled in less than ten days and for a price under $3200.

The two story house was elevated off the ground by six 5 inch aluminum columns connected by aluminum girders(plate 1). Lightweight steel beams carried the battle-deck-steel sub-flooring which was insulated and covered in linoleum. The non load-bearing exterior walls were an early corrugated aluminum sheathing. The wall assemblies were also lined with insulation board claimed have a much higher R-value than thick masonry walls. All of the door and window frames were of metal, unusual for houses of this period.

The covered space at ground level contained an open-air car port and patio. On this level a centrally located utility room and staircase contained a dumbwaiter runs from the ground level up to the roof level. The main level above the carport contained an open plan kitchen, dining, and living room space. The open loft ceiling in the living-room had a cantilevered shower stall on the roof level. This roof level was designed with a library and half bath, opening outside to a terrace and lawn. Possibly the first green roof in the U.S.

2 Most of the furniture in the house is either built-in or designed by the team using readily available materials. These include storable inflatable rubber chairs, based on blow up recreation floats Frey saw at the swimming clubs in Europe.

“I had the idea while I was working with Lawrence Kocher. Actually where I got the idea was in Switzerland. At that time they made little inflated things to sit in a pool…With space being confined like a New York apartment, I thought; inflated furniture. Deflate them and put them in a closet and then you can take them out and pump up for seats and be very comfortable.” 3

The reinvention of available materials is a trend found in the Aluminaire (as well as the next three houses diagramed). Metal tube spiral stools, a retractable dining table with a rubber top. Built-ins throughout the house were influenced by his work with on the Ville Savoy et al. The lighting was also built-in. Multicolored neon combined with UV lights were recessed throughout the living areas with an option of tanning or having “daylight” around the clock. A similar tanning light can be found in the bathroom of his last residence, the Frey II House(1964).

The Aluminaire House can be considered a success due to the fact that it was the only U.S. residence that was included in the ’s Modern Architects exhibit 1932.4 The exhibit and book resulting coined the term as we know it. Despite the publicity the project gained the office had few commissions. This could be attributed to the financial depression at the time. They continued to work with manufacturing companies designing several experimental house models. The Kocher Canvas Weekend House, Long Island, was the only model to be built (1934). Frey also worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Housing project during the early 1930’s developing inexpensive modular work/living building designs. By the late 1930’s Frey had visited the West Coast several times. He fell in love with Palm Springs California while supervising the construction of a building for Kocher’s brother in 1937. With work thin in the New York office Frey decided to stay in the desert.

3 Kocher at Black Mountain LARGE IMAGE VIEW -- BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY 11/7/11 9:58 PM

Lawrence Kocher continued to be influential in the Architecture Design/Build movement. In 1940 he became Architectural Director at Black Mountain College, Ashville, North Carolina. While in this

position he was charged with the constructionThis imageof isa provided Study as a courtesy Center of the NORTH CAROLINA he had STATE ARCHIVES. designed for the campus (plate 2). The arts schoolClose was modeled on Bauhaus principles with faculty such as Joseph Albers and Walter Gropius. In this spirit, Kocher had the students build the structure. During the summer a building program was also offered. It was completed in 1941 using a combination of both local and cutting edge materials, manufactured and prefabricated.5 The partnership between Albert Frey and Lawrence Kocher dissolved on friendly terms during this period.

Page 1 of 1 Frey in Palm Springs

Southern California had a climate much different from that found in Switzerland or New York. Designing a building in the hot arid climate was a change for Frey. His building styles during this time reflect his adjustments to the climate and their relationship to materials and form. The Frey House I was an example of this response to a new environment. The first stage completed in 1940 was a one room rectangular box with a flat overhanging roof (plate 3). He built this house “experimental in design…based on the principles presented in his 1939 book, In Search of a living Architecture, and Frey conceived of it as a model for future prefabricated and mass produced homes.”6 Although his technique was changing, the Architect’s quest and implication of the newest materials to create more accessible housing did not.

The simple shape of this building was marked by several design choices such as the use of corner wall planes extending past the volume into the landscape and large roof overhangs shading the carport and living spaces from the sun. These moves created an interior/exterior feel by pulling the landscape inside while at the same time extending the living rooms into the yard. With his

4 use of thin metal-framed doors and windows in which the glazing was clerestory, or running from floor to ceiling, the California climate gave him an opportunity for success. The Meis Van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion utilizing these themes admittedly influenced him. But unlike the marble walls and floors of Meis’ building, Frey chose corrugated Aluminum for exterior siding and roof. The 4 x 8’ wood wall frames were sheathed with the latest asbestos panels of the same size on the interior. Using exposed fasteners “Frey applied many of these prefabricated panels himself while supervising construction.”7 His playfulness is demonstrated by the flipping of the exterior corrugated pattern in horizontal and vertical directions. This corrugated shape was repeated in the landscape partition with multi-color fiberglass sheets in protecting the pool area from the desert winds. Within this area were pool-side seats and loungers built into the concrete slab. This gesture can be seen throughout Frey’s career, most notably in the House II, the most recognized and published building. He believed it a practical and durable solution for the harsh climate. (The Frey House I was purchased by a development company in the 1960’s, which went bankrupt after the house was demolished to clear the site)

The dissolution between the interior and exterior spaces was a departure from his past experimental homes that were not dependant on the site. Frey was now designing the building to work with the topography and natural conditions. This could be a factor of the sunny dry weather and the vacation lifestyle popular in Palm Springs. The Coachella Desert valley realized a post-war boom due to an existing Army Base and the return of vacationers and tourists after WWII. As a result Frey, who had partnered with at this time, benefited from this growth as an office. His projects moved more into the public sector

5 employing these experimental materials and techniques on a larger scale in civic buildings such as schools and hospitals (plate 4). Many of these structures are still operating today. Although a writer, Frey was never interested in formal teaching “I don’t like to teach. I prefer to talk about it at the site.”8

Sellers at Yale

On the East Coast, the Yale school of Architecture was one of several colleges teaching a post-war Bauhaus influenced curriculum. The new director in 1958 was Paul Rudolph who studied under Walter Gropius at The Harvard

School of Design during World War II. Gropius was a summer instructor at the Black Mountain College (of which Lawrence Kocher was a Director) and a large supporter throughout its existence. He found it a refreshing change from the traditions of Harvard during the 1930’s and 1940’s, and a chance to visit its founder Joseph Albers. Paul Rudolph had completed several Buildings in Sarasota Florida after WWII that experimented with structure and materials. The most significant was the W R Healy House, 1950 (plate 5). But according to David Sellers, who studied under him at Yale, Rudolph was not an experienced Design/Builder.9 Which is to say Rudolph loved to experiment with new technology, but did not have a direct hands on connection and therefore understanding of their best use. Rudolph taught in the classroom not in the field.

It was not until 1967, after Sellers left the school, that Rudolph’s replacement Charles Moore installed a formal Design/Build program at Yale, three years after Dave Sellers graduated. During the last two summers of college Sellers and Peter Gluck collaborated on two homes for their families. One was for Sellers brother in upstate New York. The more interesting building

6 was a beach house for Gluck’s family on Long Island. A modular home built on stilts; it is reminiscent of the Aluminaire House by Kocher-Frey. Both the Aluminaire and Gluck house were contemporary for their time, in second home locations, built quickly, economically, and raised off the ground on stilts (like many Long Island beach houses). Sellers was more influenced by the hands on approach of the Sculpture Department at Yale than the formal studios of the Architecture Department.

This can be seen in his collaboration with Ed Owre on the Tack and Bridge Houses. Owre was a sculpture, not architecture, student at Yale concurrently with Sellers. The art department was run at this time by Robert Engman a protégé of Joseph Albers. Engman was a Bauhaus devotee that believed in empirical learning rather than classical training. Owre became friends with Sellers while studying this method. Sellers felt that Architecture could be developed in the same manner. Technical and aesthetic solutions could be arrived at through a design/build method in architecture as well.

Vermont Design/Build

Upon graduation Sellers creative drive landed him in the Mad River Valley Vermont, a location he had visited as a student with Peter Gluck. Counterculture was in full swing in Vermont at the time. This, paired with a ripe vacation ski home market at Sugarbush Resort in the Valley, provided a perfect environment for architectural experimentation. “Everything about Sugarbush has a special style, from the brightly colored cars on the Italian designed gondola lift, to the Manhattan jet set clientele that swept in when the resort opened in 1958.”

Sellers, Gluck and a friend William Reineke decided to try their hand at real estate development in Vermont starting in 1965. Peter Gluck soon went on his own to develop a site for modular-prefab housing in Bolton Valley Vermont. His ARDEC House (1967) was more of a technical experiment than artistic sculpture (plate 6). It was designed to be produced cost efficiently and be sold, which it did. Gluck’s methodology seems to be more in keeping with Frey’s early Experimental houses. To Gluck, the Design/Build concept was more about controlling the design and construction process, than hands on experimentation

7 through trial and error. He never moved to Vermont, choosing New York City as his home until this day.

Sellers, on the other hand, was literally invested in the Mad River Valley (Sugarbush), buying 450 acres of cheap land at $50 per acre across the valley from the ski areas, with Bill Reineke. This was to be called Prickly Mountain. The concept was to sell off building lots at a rate Architects could afford to build on without a developer. His motives were not financially based, nor his houses to be production models. Ed Owre’s hands on approach in material exploration thrilled Sellers and Reineke… “Design is not separate from craft and art…and making discoveries by the use, understanding, and (feel of) materials and tools is one way to lead to ideas; rather than the kinds of ideas that are down on paper.”11 He joined the group in Vermont.

The three embarked on a journey at Prickly Mountain that pushed the envelope of the Design/Build concept in Architecture. The Tack House (1965-) was the first of their experiments. They began construction with little more than a concept model and the site. The house was a working model, built of common and workable materials such as plywood and Plexiglas. The process allowed one construction decision to inform the next, meanwhile informing the space which in turn directed the construction. This building became the home base for the crew that Sellers had enticed into this adventure. As groovy as this house was at the time, Prickly Mountain needed more…

The Bridge House (1966). The concept was for a ski in/out weekend (getaway) house.

The Bridge House (plate 7) was an explosion of spaces. Two large beams over sixty feet long extend out from the building core and anchored it to the sloping hillside. They were constructed using the “box beam” technique, which is a system of laminated plywood over internal lumber.

8 This allows onsite construction and modification of the structure that can span great lengths without heavy loads. These beams connected owners and guests to the house, acting as ski ramps and walkways to the entrances. Life magazine compared the building to a Rauschenberg painting.12 Upon entering the house one is bombarded by angles and color. Inside, floor planes changed with angular wall planes, creating spaces with no apparent levels. Climbing walls accessed sleeping lofts while a cocktail bar anchored the base of the house. These gestures mimicked the attitude of the weekend warriors aiming to leave the city behind.

After completion, the house was published in Life Magazine for its reflection of a growing new lifestyle. Progressive Architecture wrote about it in an article titled “The Synthetic Environment” due to it’s innovative use of materials such as exposed end grain plywood and re-used farm machinery castings as fixtures throughout the building. The Bridge House had a large enough personality to warrant an obituary when it died of fire in 1978, much too young for such a entity, “…the most wonderful thing about the house was the manner in which it was built, for it began as a test of the relation of an architect and a sculptor and how they could integrate their skills and talents, the composition of forms, color, texture, and materials, with light, structure, space and function.”13

The Design/Build architecture movement of the Twentieth Century appears to have many incarnations, two of which I have discussed above. One is a calculated development of a goal through continued experiment, and the control over this process to allow it to occur. I would categorize Albert Frey, Lawrence Kocher and Peter Gluck in this camp. The other is control over the process to allow for experimentation and personal growth to discover a result, David Sellers, Bill Renieke and Ed Owre. The question might be to what ultimate goal they are striving.

9 It would seem they all have several common goals…developing an understanding of materials through experimentation, the use of these materials to create better architecture, and enabling this to occur through control over the entire process. The results are a varied as the experiments that created them. Whether free-styling like David Sellers or the more calculated approach of Frey, it seems they have one result. Their built works as well as the mindset that created them have subtly influenced residential housing in the United States. Build what and how you want…if you can!

Bibliography:

Bowen, Ezra, The Book of American Skiing. Philadelphia: Lippincott Company,

1963

Golub, Jennifer. Frey Houses 1 & 2. New York: Princeton Architectural Press,

1999.

Harris, Mary Emma. The Arts at Black Mountain College. National Endowment

for the Arts, 1987.

Koenig, Gloria. Frey. Germany: Tachen Press, 2008.

Randle, Chad. A-Frame. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.

Rosa, Joseph. Albert Frey-Architect. New York: Princeton Architectural Press

1999.

10 Sagan, Danny. Architectural Improvisation. Burlington Vermont: University of

Vermont Press, 2008.

Barr. Hitchcock. Johnson. Mumford. Modern Architects. New York: Museum of

Modern Art, 1932.

Hitchcock. Johnson. The International Style: Architecture Since 1922. New

York: Norton & Company, 1932.

Hitchcock. Drexler. Built in USA: Post-war Architecture. New York: Museum

of Modern Art, 1952.

Periodicals:

Blake, Peter. Accent on the A-Frame. Sports Illustrated, Nov 21, 1960.

Blake, Peter. The Synthetic Environment. Progressive Architecture October

1968. PP 186-187.

Jacobs, Karrie. The Revolution That Never Quite Was. Metropolis, October

2006. PP 61-63.

Kappler, Frank. Tree House Ski House. Life, March 24 1967. PP 84-87.

Iovine, Julie. Reinventing the House. New England Monthly, October 1987, PP

66-67

Morris, Stephen. The Prickley Mountain Gang. Times Argus, October 9, 2005.

The Valley Reporter, January 1978. Taken from Architectural Improvisation.

P. 16

11 End Notes:

1. Albert Frey Architect, Rosa. P.23

2. Ibid P.24

3. Frey Houses 1 & 2, Golub. P.80

4. Modern Architects, MOMA. P.27

5. The Arts at Black Mountain College, Harris. P.60

6. Frey, Koenig. P.34

7. Ibid P.36

8. Frey Houses 1 & 2, Golub. P.77

9. Conversation with D. Sellers. October 11, 2011

10. Book of American Skiing, Bowen. P.168

11. Architectural Improvisation, Sagan. P.12

12. Life Magazine, Kapler. P.84

13. The Valley Reporter, January 1978.

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